Thursday, December 18, 2014

KANT: First Principles of Morals (Good Reason)

The first part of Kant’s principles of morals was hard
reading.Unfortunately that was just a
warm up session.That reading covered
“transition from the common rational knowledge of morality to the philosophical.”In other words we covered the easy (common)
stuff first.Now it’s time to roll up
our sleeves and really get down to business.We move on “from popular moral philosophy to the metaphysic of morals.”

Maybe the best approach is to take Kant’s own words (in
translation).He says “we can never,
even by the strictest examination, get completely behind the secret springs of
action; since, when the question is of moral worth, it is not with the actions
which we see that we are concerned, but with those inward principles of them
which we do not see.”Kant’s not so much
interested in what people are actually doing; he also wants to know why; what’s
the motivation behind what they’re doing?If someone’s doing a good work isn’t that enough?Do we really need to know why they’re doing
it?Kant would answer no and yes.No, it’s not enough that someone is doing a
good deed.For a “metaphysic of morals”
we also have to establish the reason they’re doing it.We need to know why.Kant wants to locate the bedrock foundation of
moral behavior.How do we do that?

Kant believes we have to use Reason because “reason of
itself, independent of all experience, ordains what ought to take place.”Real life gets messy.The best way to determine the right thing to
do is to step back, take a deep breath and try to think clearly.Even that method will probably fail.Despite our best intentions human nature has
a way of leading us down the wrong path.What we all have a tendency to do is decide what we want first and then
reason our way backwards to justify getting what we want.Because we’re fallible, even in our
reasoning, we have to set aside everything else and only look at moral behavior
in its purest conception, stripped of all human motivations.Kant admits this isn’t easy.He says “we must not make its (Reason’s) principles
dependent on the particular nature of human reason… since moral laws ought to
hold good for every rational creature, we must derive them from the general
concept of a rational being.”

What Kant seems to be saying is this; we have to become a
character like Spock in Star Trek.We
have to set aside our own wants and wishes and think like a purely “rational
being” would think.What would Spock
do?Kant would go along with that.But why is this point so important?It sounds like Kant wants us to turn into
mechanical thinking machines.How would
that make us any different from a computer running on a pre-set program?Kant would answer, because we have free
will.We must think like a machine but
act like a human being.How do we do
that?Kant says, “Everything in nature
works according to laws. Rational beings alone have the faculty of acting
according to the conception of laws, that is according to principles, i.e.,
have a will… the will is a faculty to choose that only which reason independent
of inclination recognises as practically necessary, i.e., as good.”The key phrase here is “rational beings
alone.”Only rational beings can
understand what Law is.They may not like
it.They may not want to do it.But they understand that it’s “necessary” to
do it anyway because it’s “good.”How do
they know it’s good?Reason tells them
so.All rational beings would agree on
this.It’s up to us to join the ranks of
rational beings and act according to rational principles of morality.It’s not much fun but for Kant it’s the right
thing to do.Spock would agree.